Disclaimer stuff: I don't know the Backstreet Boys, I doubt that I ever will, I'm not denying the eligibility of Kevin and Kristin's marriage, but I can hope can't I? I am not making any assumptions about the sexuality of the BSB or any other celebrities who may appear in this story, they are merely the product of my imagination and their appearances, lifestyles and careers happen to bear a striking resemblance to those of the real life celebrities they resemble.
Right, now I'd like to make a couple of recommendations, especially for anyone who's about to start writing on the archive: Forever (my Holy Grail!), Josh and Just, My New Life, JC's Hitchhiker, Reformation, Get Another Boyfriend, and there are so many others I can't think of now, though I'm sure I'll think of them at some point, and add them to the list.
Finally, there's all the stuff about me being English, so if something doesn't make sense, then I'm sorry but it was our language first and you changed it, so don't blame me! Hope to hear from lots of people on this chapter, it's quite long, so anyway, on with the story:
On The Streets - Part 14
[Back to Jared's Point of View BTW]
"47...48...49...No A.J. didn't do it right!...49...50!" I sat down in front of the guys who collapsed from doing abdominal crunches. They all started groaning. It wasn't the crunches that killed them - they could probably all manage that, but the fact that they were doing it before they had breakfast and had already done a full cardio workout probably wasn't helping. "Right then! Hit the showers and I'll see you upstairs in 10 minutes!" I shouted to them. As hungry as they were, they were all exhausted from the workout and didn't feel much like moving now that they were laid out. "MOVE IT!" They started to rise to their feet, and then they half jogged, half walked over to the shower room of the hotel gym. I was taking Brian along to the health club later to sort out his flexibility problems, I had checked that they had a trampoline earlier that morning.
What Kevin didn't realise was that I had sorted for the gym to be closed to the public between 6 and 8 on Monday morning, so less than 24 hours after arriving in France I was being the slave driver. I phoned around each of the guys rooms and went banging on their doors. I dragged Kevin out of bed and pulled some clothes on him: he could shower when he got back. So that was the view I had when I entered the gym: 5 half asleep, unwashed men who weren't used to the level of exercise they were about to experience! And they did experience it: they went through the cycling, rowing, running and step motions and then did it all again. I even made sure that they were pushing themselves and every few minutes I would change the resistance on their machines to make sure they were challenging themselves. As you can see I'm a bit of a maniac in the gym.
I went back to Kevin's suite to shower: I wasn't sure what they would do to me if I joined them in there, not that they were really up to much at the moment. I had ordered room service on the way up and got them to deliver up a healthy breakfast - I wasn't gonna ruin all my hard work with them piling on the fat. There was variety: croissants and jams and toast and coffee and some French cereal which didn't look as appetising as coco pops. Eventually Kevin turned up looking surprisingly clean and well groomed. Then A.J. and Howie walked in and collapsed onto the couch and Nick and Brian followed shortly after. Kevin had gone into the bedroom, presumably to get a fresh change of clothes, as all the other guys were already changed. While he was leaning over his bag looking for some stuff to wear, I came up behind him and put my arms around him. He stood straight up and leant back slightly.
"That wasn't too bad was it?" I asked. Judging by the guys' reactions they hadn't trained for quite some time, but they would get used to it and they would certainly get fitter if they kept it up.
"No, Jared, it wasn't. It was good, I actually feel really good now. The guys will feel better soon, I guess it's just the shock of being woken up at 6 in the morning to go the gym! You know we could have done it a bit later."
"Yeah but I wanted you to get in there before breakfast." Kevin nodded and he pulled on some of the clothes he pulled out of his bag.
"Ok, well either way, let's go have some breakfast, I'm starved!"
"Ummm, Kevin!" I said as he walked out the room.
"What's this? Where's all our bacon and eggs and tomatoes and mushrooms and stuff?"
"That's what I was trying to say, I work out your diet as well now. The management said I could work out your diet if your diet was affecting your performance. Fatima said that if you were fitter, you could rehearse for longer, and hence improve your performance. So basically, until Fatima is happy with how long you are able to keep rehearsing for, I get to control what you eat." I smiled at the guys' open-mouthed expressions.
"But...But..." Came out of Nick's mouth.
"How...Why?" Brian tried to stutter out.
"But she's as much of a slave driver as you! We'll never be fit enough!" A.J. shouted out.
"You know we don't need to be Mr. Universes or anything, we just need to be a little fitter. Come on, please!" Kevin whined. Howie chomped silently on a croissant filled with jam.
"Look! Howie is eating this food quite happily, I think you all should too." I answered.
"Howie!"
"How could you man!"
"There goes our breakfast." Various remarks came from around the room, all aimed at Howie. Kevin just grumbled and sank into the couch. I sat opposite, took a croissant and began to spread jam on it. Then I got on my knees and crawled over to Kevin, then held the end of the croissant up to his mouth. I looked into his eyes and he just looked back. Then he opened his mouth and took the biggest bite I've ever seen. I think he was trying to imply something. The doughy mass tore and Kevin chewed. It apparently tasted quite good.
I caught Nick looking at me once or twice that morning. I started noticing his glances more and more. But I think it was the workout clothes. Even Kevin in his half-woken state commented to me on my good taste in sportswear, or rather he appreciated the fact that so much of me was uncovered seeing as I actually went up there in a very loose vest and a pair of shorts. Nick continued to look at me all the way through breakfast, and I was just about ready to shout at him for looking at me like I was a piece of meat when the other guys did it for me.
"Nick, will you take your eyes off of Jared!" Howie shouted at him.
"Yeah Nick! I mean Kevin's already punched you once for that, just think what will happen if Jared punches you I mean you saw what he was lifting in the gym, and I think he might just punch you if you carry on looking at his ass like it's ripe for the taking!" A.J. backed up. Brian stayed silent. I think Brian might have been torn. I knew they were close - Frick and Frack, but Kevin was Brian's cousin - how could he choose?
"Hey guys!" I shouted out. "That's enough." Kevin looked at me surprised that I had stood up for Nick. "Look, I know Nick did something wrong, so does he. He knows that I'm with Kevin. Now, while that may be true it doesn't mean he's not allowed to look - he's human, give him a break! If I was some gorgeous blonde woman and I was going out with, I don't know, Howie or one of you, then are you saying that the rest of you would avert your eyes each time I walked into the room?" The guys all looked down in their breakfast plates. They realised that it was true. The only reason they were speaking up was because it was different - I am a man and I'm dating Kevin. If I had been some fit woman, they would have all been gawking, but because I'm not, no-one's even allowed to look. I'm sorry, but that's not the way I run my life - I may be as monogamous as humanly possible, but I am not property. I was still looking over at the other guys when I felt Kevin's goatee scrape against my cheek and his lips pressed to the corner of my lips.
"I love you Jared." He said as he ran his hand up the back of my hair. I shivered as I felt goose bumps rise down my back. Kevin smiled and kissed me again on the cheek before picking up some toast. The other guys were all staring at us. I wasn't looking at them, but I could feel it. When I whipped my head around and saw them still staring, they suddenly jumped and Brian dropped his knife, A.J. almost dropped the plate he had been resting on his knee, Nick jumped forward as if he had been reaching for a croissant and Howie just smiled at us. I don't know why, but Howie always seemed to be kind, not just kind, but knowing, like a father figure or something. He was quiet, which I always liked in a person as I liked my silence sometimes, but he always knew the right thing to say and how to handle a situation, I guess I liked the calmness which literally poured off of him.
"Ok. After breakfast I'm taking Brian along to the health club - as Tima says he needs to work on his flexibility. Do any of the rest of you want to come along? The area we're working in will be closed to the public, and there are a few extra trampolines and I think there's a basketball hoop, so you could come along and muck around if you want?" I looked around and saw Brian still eating.
"Ok! Kevin, you'll come right? I'm gonna whip your ass at b-ball again!" Nick spoke up and was smirking at Kevin.
"You wish Nicky! Your ass is gonna be ground into the floor." A.J. and Howie remained silent. I looked towards them both with an eyebrow raised.
"Don't look at us! We're going back to sleep!" A.J. said.
"Sorry Jared, but 6 a.m. is just way too early for me. I'm going back to bed." Howie said. I chuckled and the other guys and I all got up and got ready to go out. The health club was only down the road and I was kinda pissed that we would have to take a limo and bodyguards with us, but apparently the fans found out where the boys were staying and they were outside, (I wonder how they found that out - couldn't have been the drive down the Champs-Elysees could it?) so we would get the limo from a side door of the hotel and drive down there. The health club had basically given us the hall for a couple of hours, so we agreed to be there at 10 and we would be finished by 12. I felt kinda sorry for Brian - he had been singled out, I decided that I would see just how flexible these guys really were. I was gonna get each of them up on the trampoline and see what they could do. I knew this would be interesting.
Just before 10, Brian, Kevin, Nick and I all walked down to the side entrance of the hotel and piled into the limo. We drove out the little side street which led to that entrance and we could see about 20 or so girls waiting outside the main entrance to the hotel. I saw one guy in the group and I thought to myself, 'well, unless he's waiting for Nick...'. We were soon at the Health club - it was only a few hundred metres away from the hotel, and it was a big grey building with green girders on the outside supporting it. We walked in through the glass double doors, me and Brian, followed by Kevin and Nick. I spoke to the receptionist and she confirmed our reservations of the main gym and she handed me a basketball which I threw to Nick. Nick was dressed in a black vest and long, baggy, red shorts. Kevin was also in a black vest and white shorts, and Brian was in a purple vest with yellow shorts. I thought the mix was a bit blinding, but we walked through to the main gymnasium. There was one of the health club workers just walking out and he smiled at us as we passed. He looked pretty good! As he walked past, my head flicked around to catch a view of his ass, but Kevin had actually guessed what I was going to do - he stood blocking my view until the guy had turned the corner!
"Hey!" I looked up at Kevin with a hurt expression on my face.
"Pervert." Kevin chuckled out as he walked past me. I pushed Kevin on the back and he went stumbling with Nick to the far end of the hall where there was a basketball hoop set up. I took Brian to one side down our end of the hall and started warming up with him. I got him into each of the stretch positions and then pushed a little further. I saw him grimace a bit each time, but there was no way he was going to increase his flexibility without stretching. "Hey Jared! I don't know what you're doing to my cous' down there, but if you were gonna start some weird kinky sex game, you coulda told me!" Kevin shouted as I realised he and Nick were watching me as I bent over Brian who had one leg stretched so that it was almost parallel to his body and I leant on it gently to increase the stretch. I shook my head at them and released Brian. He rolled forwards and I held out my hands and pulled him up.
"Right! Let's go on the trampoline." It was only 10:30, so I figured we could get in a good three-quarters of an hour and then get back to some stretching, and I could also get the guys up here afterwards, see how flexible they really were. Brian and I took off our shoes and climbed up onto the tramp. It was larger than an Olympic size - it must have been a training size, and the moment we stepped on, I realised it was slightly firmer than usual, normally to support two people so that a teacher can stand on the trampoline at the same time as a student. "Ok, just try jumping up and down a few times, get used to the feel of it." I stood towards the side so that I didn't go flying into Brian. He took about twenty or thirty jumps before I told him to come down.
"No way! This is too much fun!" He laughed down at me. I gave him another ten jumps or so before I stopped him.
"OK! Brian! Come down!" He did. "Now, I want you to try tucking, lifting your knees up into your chest as much as you can, when you're at the peak of the jump, and then extending before you get back down again." He nodded and he practised: he was a bit wobbly to begin with, but he gradually got the hang of it. I practised a few other moves, seat drops, pike jumps, I tried to get him to do the splits, but he obviously needed more practise. I got him to do a seated somersault - he did a normal somersault and landed on his ass before bouncing up again. I was actually impressed - it normally takes a lot of nerve to do that, especially on your first time.
After about forty minutes, I told Brian he could stop - he was sweating quite a lot. I told him to get off, jog once around the hall to loosen off and then finish with a few stretches, making sure he did his legs properly. He slowly climbed down. I think the workout this morning was starting to take its toll. "Oh yeah, and Brian!" I shouted before he got off. "Send Kevin or Nick down once you're done - I want them to have a go on this!" He smiled up at me and went off on his jog. I saw him stretch off at the far end of the hall. I did a bit of trampolining while I was waiting: I used to do it a lot through secondary school, and I could still do the flips and jumps. It seemed so much less impressive when you could do it without the trampoline! After 5 or so minutes, Kevin came up to the edge of the trampoline. Sweat was dripping off the ends of his long hair, and down his nice body. He looked up at me as I did a flip, and I saw him and smiled. He smiled back up and when I landed, I stopped and told him to get up.
"Why? I'm not the one who needs to practise not getting cramps!"
"It doesn't matter! You could probably all use some practise! Besides, I want to see which one of you has got the most guts! Who can manage the full somersault first?" I smiled at him, and he smiled back. Well, he wasn't actually smiling, more of a smug grin. He started jumping and I moved off to the side. I was surprised - he was getting very high and he was doing it very well. His jumps were practised - there was no way he hadn't done this before. After about 10 jumps, he did one high jump came down, went up, did a somersault and landed, and stopped. I looked up at him surprised. I shook my head. I'd been had - he'd done this before.
"You read that book on the Backstreet Boys right?" I nodded. "Didn't you read what I did before I joined?" I frowned for a second. I couldn't remember.
"Weren't you working at Walt Disney World?" He smiled.
"I worked as a Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle - now how do you think we managed to jump so high in the show?" He smiled at me. "We used trampolines! Duh!" He grinned. I shook my head. He jumped off the trampoline and joined Brian who had started playing basketball against Nick, and he sent Nick over to join me on the tramp.
"Right Nick, start jumping." He looked up at me on the trampoline, confused, but he shrugged and climbed up. He started jumping and soon he was pretty high. He hadn't really done this before - I could see by how stiff he was. "Ok Nick, tuck your knees up to your chest when you're at the top." He did tuck jumps and landed ok. He was starting to loosen up. "Ok Nick stop." I decided to have a little fun myself. I stood about half a metre to one side of the centre spot and I got Nick to stand on the other side. "Right we're gonna jump alternately okay?" He nodded. Soon we were jumping pretty high, each of us landing alternately and basically catapulting the other into the air. Each time as we went higher, Nick carried on giving me funny looks.
"Um, Jared?" He said as he passed me once. "JARED!"
"Yep?" I said quickly as we shot past one another.
"How... do... we... stop?" He asked, one word each time we zipped past each other.
"Easy!" I said. Then jumped onto the crash mat that ran around the edge of the trampoline. Nick landed for his next jump and I think the sudden reduction in the force acting on him gave him a shock and he sorta stumbled a bit before falling onto the crash mat. I rolled over and lay on my front and watched Kevin and Nick playing basketball. They were both pretty good, but I reckoned that Brian had the upper hand most of the time, even if he was a lot shorter than Kevin. I felt Nick bounce across the tramp and land on the crash mat next to me in the same position as me. He even rested his head in his hands like me. I watched Kevin as he jogged gracefully around the side of the court and scored a three pointer from the corner.
"Do you really love Kevin?" Nick asked me. I looked over at him and saw a seriousness in his eyes that I hadn't seen before.
"I've never felt this way about anyone before." I answered. He swallowed.
"You didn't answer my question. Do you love Kevin?" I sighed and rubbed my face in my hands.
"Yeah I do Nick. I really love Kevin." I looked over at him and he had a confused expression on his face. I knew that he was concerned about my somewhat laboured response. "Nick, when you've been doing what I've been doing for so long it takes a lot for you to bring out your emotions. It's even harder to admit to them. I've been shut up for so long in myself, at first I didn't even want to admit to myself that I was falling for Kevin, but eventually I gave in to it, and I'm happy that I did. I feel like Kevin is inside me and all around me, I don't know, but it feels alien to me, I haven't felt like this in so long." I sighed, releasing a lot of pent up feelings which I hadn't realised I needed to realise so bad. I had tears in my eyes. I stood up and Nick stood with me. He hugged me as soon as we were up. I just sank into it. It felt good and I was pretty sure he wasn't just coming onto me anymore. After a couple of minutes I opened my eyes and I saw Kevin and Brian standing beside the tramp. "Right! Ready to go?" I said to defuse the situation. They both nodded. Nick climbed off the tramp with me and he and Brian walked out. Kevin held me back.
"Are you ok? Nick mouthed that you were a bit upset."
"No, it's ok, I just haven't had to sort out my feelings and express them to someone else in a long time. Nick asked me how I felt about you, he was just being friendly, and I guess it took a lot out of me. I've kept my emotions pretty tight to myself over the past few years, so when Nick asked, well, I guess I think of Nick as one of the closest friends I've ever had, in fact I do with all the guys already, even if I've only known your for a bit over a week now. And, well, I just opened up to him and I think I went a bit too far." I started stumbling. Kevin pulled me by the back of the neck and kissed the top of my head. He put his arm around my shoulders and escorted me out the health club. We piled back into the limo. I decided that we would all have to shower again as they all stank from playing basketball, and their hair was all wet again, so, back at the hotel, which we entered again through the side entrance, we went to our respective rooms and showered. By this time it was 12:45 and we were starting to get pretty hungry again.
Kevin called around all the other guys and we met up in Kevin's room. We ordered room service, they started ordering pretty much everything on the menu, then I coughed really loudly and they looked up sheepishly and stopped. We sat back and waited for the room service to arrive.
"Oh Kev, um, management called while you were out, said something about not being able to get you on your cell - did you take it with you?" Howie asked.
"No, I left it here. What did they want?" Kevin asked with a confused expression on his face.
"They want us to go for an interview this afternoon, at some Paris radio station." Kevin groaned as did the other guys.
"What's the matter with that? You did them in London." I asked.
"Yeah, but in France and, well, everywhere else, well we need interpreters. The only place we've ever tried to do a foreign language interview ourselves is Spain, but we haven't tried that for years. We're a bit out of practice now. So we have to wait for the interpreter to say everything for us, and it makes the interview really long and boring, and we only answer half the questions we would normally in the time space." I nodded my head.
"Hey, maybe Brian could do the interpreting for you! How's the French coming Brian?" I asked him.
"Ha Ha Jared! You know perfectly well that I can barely speak a few words, and my accent's terrible!" I chuckled at him. The other guys joined in.
Lunch arrived and the guys ate gluttonously - the breakfast this morning must not have been enough to stave off hunger this long. The interview was due to start at 3, so the guys decided to just bum around for a bit until then. Kevin ended up next to me on the couch in his living room, and we were talking, about nothing in particular, just stuff they were doing over the next week.
"Kevin, do you mind if I carry on Nick's lessons?" I asked him. I liked teaching Nick, guess it's just the teacher in me, I knew it was a touchy subject, but I wanted to know if Kevin minded before I went back to Nick.
"I can't say that I'd be particularly happy over it." Ok, wasn't expecting that. "Look Jared, it's not I don't trust you, because I do, entirely, and it's not that I don't particularly trust Nick: it's just, I guess I'll always be kinda wary about how you two are together. He's admitted he likes you, and not just as a friend. I want you to be friends with Nick, but, well, I mean, you understand what I'm saying right? If your best friend started flirting with your boyfriend, and then apologised, you wouldn't necessarily start trusting him completely again would you? Oh god, I'm just being selfish, I'm sorry Jared, but, it's so hard, I don't know if I can forgive Nick straight away for that. I'm not mad at him anymore, I just don't want you alone with Nick too much, at least not yet. Do you think maybe you could do your lessons here, or in the bus, somewhere where, I don't know, you won't be alone, or I can come see you, and just, how can I put this, see that you're ok?" He started babbling after that. I think he was trying to explain himself. He was leaning forward on the couch and was holding his head in hands, occasionally leaning forward slightly and running his fingers through his hair. I understood perfectly what he meant: he didn't trust Nick around me on our own yet, so although he's forgiven Nick he wants us to continue our lessons only with other people around us. I got that when he said it the first time, but he was still babbling on. I thought I should let him squirm a bit, maybe it would help him come to terms with how he was feeling anyway, but eventually I just leaned over and kissed him. He looked up at me with surprise on his face. "Oh! You knew what I was talking about all along didn't you?" I nodded. He growled softly under his breath. Suddenly he jumped on top of me and pushed me into the corner of the couch. He smelt so good, but I wasn't gonna let him get the upper hand. I pushed him back so that he was now in his corner of the couch with me on top. The couch groaned and squeaked underneath us: I guess these couches weren't made for two guys of Kevin's and my size to roll about on. I leant down and kissed him. I put my hands on the side of his face and rolled my tongue around his lips. I felt his hands slide up and down my back and eventually he moved his hands down and grabbed my ass. I smiled into the kiss. A few minutes later, as luck would have it, a knock came on the door, and Brian shouted through the door:
"Hey you guys! Stop making out in there! We've gotta get going to the interview!" I moaned into the kiss. I sat back with a disappointed look on my face. Kevin leaned forward and kissed me again and said that I could stay at the hotel.
"Why?" I looked at him, wondering why he wouldn't want me there.
Kevin got a very nervous look on his face all of a sudden.
"Um, Jared, I don't know how to say this, but my management called. They're kinda worried that you're with us all the time. They think that if a reporter gets nosey enough he might try digging on who you are. I don't know how to deal with the managers yet. Maybe just for we could do what they say, and when the guys and I go to something like an interview, well, you could stay here and just bum around at the hotel. I mean it's not like the interviews are very interesting - you'd just be bored, and I mean if it keeps management happy, what difference does it make?" He asked with a quizzical expression on his face.
"Sure, um, yeah, I'll stay here. When...What time will you be back?" I asked, a little uncertainly.
"About 5 or 5:30, it depends, apparently this interview's on the other side of Paris and it takes a while to get there. But we shouldn't be any later than that." Kevin asked me with a hopeful expression on his face.
"Sure, ok, go to the interview, I'll see you sometime after 5." I nodded and Kevin nodded back. He leant forward and kissed me on the lips. I perhaps didn't kiss back as enthusiastically as Kevin hoped - as he stood up he had a hurt expression on his face.
"Bye Jared."
And then he was gone.
*** In the car.
"Kevin looks bummed." Nick murmured to Brian who was sitting next to him on one of the side seats of the limo. Kevin's knee was shaking up and down and he was looking around a bit nervously.
"Well, what do you expect? When we have girlfriends, we're allowed to take them everywhere with us, Kevin's practically been told by management not to take Jared out in public, and he's worried about what Jared's gonna say." Brian answered.
"Did they go that strict? I thought they just told him not to take Jared everywhere." Nick whispered back.
"They weren't specific, but they wanted to make absolutely certain that Jared was never in a photo with us - think how many photos are taken of us everyday. That's basically confined Jared to the hotel in one go."
"You know you guys really need to learn how to whisper." Kevin murmured from the back seat.
"Sorry Kev."
"Yeah, sorry Kevin."
"I am worried about Jared though, what's he gonna say. I mean it's not fair that he has to stay in the hotel. Maybe it would just be fairer if..." He trailed off.
"Kevin? What're you saying?" A.J. asked.
"I'm just saying that Jared might not appreciate being told what to do and what not to do. It's not specified to that extent in his contract, and he doesn't really seem the type to follow the rules anyway." The other guys nodded. "I'm just thinking that maybe...
To Be Continued... End of Part 14
Well, that's their first day in France. I guess this story is still going a lot slower than I expected it would. I'm back at school now, which is why the chapters are coming quite a bit slower than they were before, and I'm sorry if anyone is kept waiting for the next section, but it is difficult to keep up with homework and stuff and basically write a book! Oh yeah, bit of a cliff-hanger this time - I noticed I hadn't really put many cliff-hangers in the story so far, so I added one here. Ummmm, I think that's it. Oh yeah, anyone wants to write to me at all, do, even if you don't like something about the story, it's always stuff for me to consider, and I have changed the direction of the story several times because of what people have said, so don't think all your comments are going to waste.